In the 1960s, William Nickerson wrote, "How I Turned $1000 into Three Million in Real Estate" and "How to Make a
Fortune Today Starting from Scratch." It was one of the first real estate investing book to get national attention.
A little later, Al Lowry authored "How You Can Become Financially Independent by Investing in Real Estate." Al Lowry
might be called the father of the modern-day real estate seminars, because he was the first to hold seminars
as a result of his book sales.
But it was Mark Haroldsen who carried the real estate book/seminar thrust to the next level. Haroldsen first wrote,
"How to Wake Up the Financial Genius Inside You." If you were tuned in to real estate investing at that time, you remember the advertising picture of suave and bald-headed
Mark leaning against the front hood of his Mercedes. The picture appeared everywhere in full page ads in major
publications. And as Mark began selling his books, he began holding real estate investing seminars. I have sat with
Mark at lunch, and heard him tell stories of the advertising blitz that vaulted him to national prominence in
real estate investing. Mark later wrote "The Courage To Be Rich" and "Tax Free."
But it was Robert Allen who capitalized on the previous groundwork by Lowry and Haroldsen. Robert Allen was
paid a reported $1 million advance royalties for his best-selling book, "Nothing Down," a compilation of
50 techniques for buying property with no money. Robert had learned these techniques from several years experience
with a commercial real estate firm. He later wrote "Creating Wealth" and "Getting Started in Real Estate Investing."
The Robert Allen Real Estate Investing Seminars was a phenomenal marketing bonanza. Conventions were held periodically
in the major cities across the country, like Orlando, LA, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta. The authors of various
real estate investing techniques spoke at these seminars, but their spiel focused on their package of materials which they offered for sale.
Millions of dollars of investing materials were sold at these conventions. This convention frenzy ushered in
what has since become known as "The Nothing Down Real Estate Movement" of the early to mid 1980s.
I keep all of these books in my personal library, and you can probably still find them in your library. There’s a lot of
great information in these books that can make you very knowledgeable, even though some of the ideas are dated.
Another book that appeared in the early 1980s was "How My Wife and I Teamed Up to become Millionaires - A Universal
System of Land Transactions," by Jim Stephenson. Jim’s technique was entirely different from Mark’s. Jim had made a
fortune in the Houston area by developing raw land and converting it into small 5 acre lots. As Houston
had exploded in growth and rapidly widened the perimeter of the city limits, Jim worked the outer circle of the city in
search of strips of land that paralleled the major thoroughfares. He negotiated for this cheap farm land, buying only
property which could be cut up into 5 acre tracts suitable for resale to people who wanted to escape the city on their
own mini-farm. It was a terrific idea that made Jim a millionaire, but it was ideally
adaptable to a burgeoning city. Jim had capitalized on a regional phenomenon.
Which technique is best?
Have you ever been puzzled by the variety of ways for making money in real estate?
I don't think anyone can dogmatically recommend the technique best for another person. It's all learned by trial and
error. However, it is a dilemma.
If you have read real estate books with opposing approaches, or if you have attended real estate seminars or watched
real estate info commercials, you too might have experienced this conflict of views. Often these differences are
glossed over in the attempt to keep the focus on making money rather than on the nuances distinguished between
techniques. But when you are caught in this dilemma, the choice of which route to take can be disturbing.
In fact, I have found that the dilemma can actually be debilitating.
If you need immediate cash, but choose to follow one of the gurus whose technique is buying real estate notes or buying
tax liens, you might not recognize that these are NOT instant cash cows until you are deep in the process.
Or if you choose to buy rental properties, you will discover that you can generate immediate cash flow only on the
difference between the mortgage note and the rental income. This technique is not a cash cow either.
Even if you choose to use the lease-to-own technique, you might make some up-front money on the transfer of your
optioned property to the rent-to-own lessee, but sometimes the bulk of your profit comes at the end of your two to
five year lease period.
How quickly do you need cash?
You can make money with any sound technique in real estate. You really will find it hard NOT to make money. But some
techniques pay off quicker than others. And that’s very important to your success.
I have used all of these techniques over the past 25 years. I have owned millions of dollars in income-producing
property. It's how I became a millionaire in three years, and a multi-millionaire in four years. But I consider
landlording as the least desirable way of breaking into real estate investing. Fixing up cheap houses for the
purpose of re-selling them is my recommendation for making the most immediate cash flow. Once you have the
cash flow that most investors need most at the beginning of their career, then you can consider other
investment techniques.
Study everything you can get your hands on in order to acquire a knowledge base so essential for making these
decisions.
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